In the spirit of the 30-year anniversary of the day Marty McFly arrived in the future, Fourth Element this week said it will introduce a new way of scanning and mapping a diver’s body to be able to produce a form-fitted drysuit.
The BIOMAP comes in two versions: BIOMAP.3D uses full-body scanning to create a 3D model of your body from which hundreds of accurate measurements can be taken before determining what size suit you need, or, if made to measure is required, to create a unique pattern for your suit.
BIOMAP.photo uses two photos to create an accurate sets of measurements and can be used in a dive store to order a suit. The buyer can then specify and customize his or her suit using Fourth Element‘s Argonaut Online Tools, including an innovative drysuit designer, which will automatically create the order for your bespoke suit.
Fourth Element’s Jim Standing told DeeperBlue.com:
“The original idea came up six or seven years ago in one of those ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if….’ conversations that Strikey (Paul Strike – Fourth Element co-founder) and I seem to have a lot of. We were in a plane sitting next to a guy who worked in a field of laser imaging called lidar. The inevitable conversation followed about laser scanning and wouldn’t it be cool if you could laser scan someone and make a suit for them. We quickly discovered how expensive that option was and then about a year later I read an article in my university alumni magazine about 3D modelling from photos. I contacted the research fellow behind the work and chatted to him about building an array of cameras to take 8 simultaneous photos. But it didn’t go much further than a theoretical ‘wouldn’t it be cool if’ idea. Then, a little over two years ago we joined forces with Falmouth University with the help of the UK Technology Strategy Board, and began to turn ‘what if’ into ‘how’. We employed Antonia Jonientz, a garment technician and pattern making specialist to turn our vision into a reality and with a lot of research and training, here we are.”
If you’re in England, Fourth Element will be showcasing the BIOMAP at DIVE 2015 in Birmingham this weekend, and at the DEMA Show in Florida from 4th-7th November.
